Queen’s Brian May issued an apology tonight after appearing to defend Bohemian Rhapsody director Bryan Singer in an Instagram comment. After a fan commented yesterday telling May to unfollow Singer on Instagram, May responded, “You need to look after your own business and stop telling me what to do. And you need to learn to respect the fact that a man or woman is innocent until proven guilty.” Find a screenshot of the comment below.

Tonight, May offered a public apology, which was addressed to the woman who received his initial comment. “My response was a result of my perception that someone was telling me what to do,” he wrote. “I now realise that I was completely wrong in thinking that. You were actually just trying to protect me, for which I thank you. I am mortified to discover the effect my words produced. I had no idea that saying someone was innocent until proven guilty could be interpreted as ‘defending’ Bryan Singer. I had absolutely no intention of doing that.” He continued:

I guess I must be naive, because also it had never occurred to me that
“following” a person on Instagram could be interpreted as approving of
that person. The only reason I followed Bryan Singer was that we were
working with him on a project. That situation came to an end when Mr
Singer was sacked during the shooting of the film, but I suppose
unfollowing him never occurred to me as a necessity. Now, because of
this misunderstanding, I have unfollowed. I’m so sorry. This must have
caused you a lot of upset. I wish I could take the comment back, but
all I can do is apologise, and hope that my apology will begin to make
amends. Sadly, this is all very public, but since I snapped at you in
public, it’s only fitting that I should apologise in public.

Bohemian Rhapsody had its nomination for Outstanding Film—Wide Release withdrawn from this year’s GLAAD Media Awards as a result of the allegations against Singer. Time’s Up also released a statement condemning Singer. Though Singer was fired from the film in 2017 after production delays, he is still officially credited as the film’s director.